TWEEN: Painting, animation and some in betweens by Anne and Michael Burton

December 3, 2010 – January 31, 2011

Opening reception Friday, December 3, 2010, 7:00 – 11:00 pm

1745 “N” Street (at 18^th Street) Lincoln, Nebraska

Parallax Space is pleased to announce the opening of their exhibition Tween: Painting, animation and some in betweens by Anne and Michael Burton to be held on Friday, December 3, 2010.  Located in downtown Lincoln in a renovated former auto-body shop, this opening will be the first independent show for the gallery.

Tween is the first collaborative exhibition between Anne and Michael Burton, and will showcase their joint endeavor of photography, painting, and projected animation. The title Tween conjures up a variety of meanings: a reference to the images between key frames, which are used to create animation; a collaboration (be)tween the two artists; and a space (be)tween the individual aesthetics of both artists, where  their creative voices are woven together.

Anne Ruehrmund Burton was born in Washington D.C. She earned her BFA from the University of Richmond in 2004, and her MFA from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2008, under a Hixson Lied Fellowship. Anne has exhibited her paintings, prints, and installations both regionally and internationally, most recently in Fremont, Nebraska at the Gallery 92 West, in Nebraska City, Nebraska at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Gallery, and in Richmond, Virginia at the Cornerstone Gallery.

Michael Burton (www.burtonworldart.com) was born in Fall River, Massachusetts.  He earned his BFA from Green Mountain College in 1999, and his MFA from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2007, under a Hixson Lied Fellowship. Michael exhibits both regionally and nationally, most recently in Miami at A-BoMB, Sioux City Art Center where he received Best in Show for the 61^st Annual Art Exhibition, as well as Athens, Greece and Varna, Bulgaria. Michael currently teaches at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in the Textiles, Clothing and Design Department.

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In/Formation

This is the essay I wrote to accompany our November exhibition Instructions for Initial Conditions (with Drift Station Gallery).

In/Formation

Marissa Vigneault

November 2010

You may read this essay, or you may not.  These words may influence your understanding of the works of art, or they may not.  It is up to you, reader, to participate to the extent that you desire.  My collection of words is a formation of information and ideas, intended as a catalyst for future investigations of the subject matter at hand.

The Shift

The gradual shift of the artwork from appearance to conception during the twentieth-century is continuously marked by the influence of Marcel Duchamp, whose introduction of the readymade undermined an emphasis on retinal authority in favor of the conceptual and intellectual.  By the time of Duchamp’s death in 1968, the artistic experimentations of Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, theater, music, and dance had moved the work of art away from medium-specificity and “wholeness,” towards a breakdown of categorical boundaries and an insistence on the contingent.  With the emergence of Conceptual art in the early 1960s came a realization of the dematerialization of art; the work of art no longer needed a material presence, one that could be constantly measured against traditional modes of art, but could instead exist as a mental concept, one that may or may not be realized.  This shift opened up the passages by which one produces art, as an emphasis on language and text rather than image allows the artist to operate outside the realms of a purely pictorial system.  Yet one has to be aware of the reliance of text upon a pre-existing structure of communication; even though the hierarchical realm of image making is dissolved, the hierarchical schema of language still dictates our participation.

The Text

Text as a strategic insertion into the work of art finds a long history in artistic production, whereas text as a sole materialization of the work emerged in the early part of the 1960s (although one may persuasively argue John Cage’s 1952 composition 4’33” as an earlier manifestation).  The trajectory of reductivism that one finds in the mid-century art world, one which has roots in early 20^th century avant-garde experimentations, resulted in this emphasis on the textual.  The offering of a text to the reader/viewer, a role which may be combined into that of the participant, creates a situation where the text becomes the work of art, underlining Sol LeWitt’s statement that,  “If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature, numbers are not mathematics.”[i] However, the suggestion of the text as art does not require the reification of this text into a cohesive original work.  If anything, the emphasis on the textual negates the idea of uniqueness and originality, the founding tenets of modernism, in favor of infinite possibilities to be enacted indefinitely.  The text may be presented to the participant by way of documentation, in the form of the book, poster, pamphlet, website, and so on, in a mode of infinite reproducibility that results in unknowable encounters and enactments.

The Participant

Via Wittgenstein, we understand our experiences as linguistically mediated; one may communicate with words, but these words must have meaning in order to be understood, to be meaningful.  The experiential exchange between reader and text activates a performative model of art, whereby the viewer becomes the reader and thus an active participant in the creation of the work of art, a suggestive model which subverts the artist/viewer binary.  Within this blurred line of creation, art becomes democratic; anyone who chooses can make and “own” art.  I again emphasize that this does not result in a solitary, permanent, complete work of art, but rather a transitory, activated space of potential.

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[i] Sol LeWitt, “Sentences on Conceptual Art,” Art-Language (May 1969).

November First Friday

Instructions for Initial Conditions

Parallax Space and Drift Station Gallery – November 2010

Participating artists:

Aaron Holz	Clark Stoeckley	Jina Wallwork	Milja Laurila	Sean O’Neill
Aaron Oldenburg	Dan Buhrdorf	Joel Farris	Miranda Maher	Silvia Sellitto
Adam Farcus	Darcy McCabe	John M Bennett	Moira Williams	SJ Gibson
Adam Tindale	David Berridge	John Hammersley and Jono Lewarne	Morgan Jensen	Skot Wiedmann
Alicia Grant	David Borawski	John Neeson	MSR2	Sofie Loscher
Alisdair MacRae	Deric Carner	Joshua Mattes	Na’ama Zussman	Spurse
Alistair Ashe	Elizabeth Gower	Joshua WF Thomson	Neil Horsky	Stephanie Busson
Angelika Rinhofer	Eric Lopez	Julie Haw	Nestor Armando Gil	Tamara Stephas
Anna Kell	Eric Moschopedis & Mia Rushton	Kan Seidel	Nicholas Knight	Team Zatara (Matthew Fielder/Rachel Kessler)
Annabelle Craven-Jones	Erik Benjamins	Katy Howkins	Nick Bastis	Thomas Martin
Anthony Roark	Esteban Schimpf	Kristin Nyce	Nick Kennedy	Tiana Peterson
Arran Poole	Georgia Wall	Kristina Martino	Norbert Costin	Tim Taylor
Arturo Evening	Hannah Hamilton	Kristina Wolfe	Osvaldo Cibils	Tom Hackett
Barb Smith	Hannah Ross	Lane Cooper	Paul Shortt	Tony Schwensen
Benjamin Sisto	HC Arnold	Larry Caveney	Paul Wierbinski	Travis Janssen
Betsy van Die	“Helina Daniel”	Laura Konttinen	Persephone Thorn-Hauswirth	Valka Loohuis
Bill Gusky	Ignacio Pérez Pérez & Aidana Rico	Luc Fierens	Peter Ciccariello	William Brovelli
Brian Schorn	Jamie Fritz & Victoria Hoyt	Luke Munn	Philippe Van Wolputte	Willum Geerts
Bridget Walker	Jason Conny	MA Melgares	Reed Altemus
Burt Ritchie	Jaume	Marianne Holm Hansen	Richard Smolinski
Carlos Navarrete	Jay Merryweather	Mark Koven	Romain di Vozzo
Charles Napier	Jen Keshka	Martins Rokis	Ron Lambert
Chris Barr	Jen Keshka and Jason Sendros	Mary Walker	S A Custance
Christine Dehne	Jen McChesney	Michael Davies	Sam Vandie
Christopher Ford	Jessica Borusky	Mies Baars	Scarlet Bourne
Christopher Hudson	Jesús Otero Iglesias	Mike Callaghan	Seán O Sullivan

Instructions for Initial Conditions opens tonight

Friday, November 5 from 6:00 p.m. to late

Drift Station Gallery and Parallax Space are pleased to announce the opening of their exhibition “Instructions for Initial Conditions” to be held on Friday, November 5th, 2010.  Located in downtown Lincoln in a renovated former auto-body shop, this opening will be the second for both galleries.

The initial condition a term used in Chaos Theory refers to a simple starting point that, when the system is set into motion, is radically transformed into an unpredictable result.  “Instructions for Initial Conditions” is the result of an international open call for instructions which will be exhibited as artworks.  The viewer will be prompted to engage with the instructions on display, ones which describe the initial condition by which something (a work of art, or something other) can be made or enacted.

Each work was limited to an emailed file that could be printed on an 8.5 x 11” sheet of paper. The call itself served as an initial condition and brought varied unforeseen results that surprised, delighted, and challenged. We received work from over 125 artists, with all 7 continents represented.  The works run the gamut from computer code to a modified German recipe for gingerbread.

The opening reception will also feature a performance created by Parallax Space’s Bill Graham in collaboration with members of the Mighty Vitamins that invites members of the audience to help create constantly-changing sonic loops.